The Sentence is Infinite
by Phoenix003
Summary: The secret son of Finnick Odair and Annie Cresta, raised in the Capitol, begins to discover his true heritage. Unfortunately at around the same time, so does President Snow. AU- The Victors were never involved in the 75th Hunger Games.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

They stand outside the club waiting anxiously as the bouncer looks them up and down suspiciously.

"How old did you say you were?" He asks.

"How about," Delilah says, leaning forward so the man can see her full breasts threatening to burst out of the top of her tight dress, "We forget the age, and you just let us through?"

For a moment the man looks tempted, but responsibility seems to win over and he shakes his head regretfully.

"Sorry. No can do. Can't let anyone under eighteen in."

Tomas can feel his sister stiffen beside him and wonders if she'll get angry. Instead however, she surprises him and smiles sweetly at the bouncer. She reaches down the front of her dress and pulls out a roll of notes from the space between her bosoms. Delilah peels a few of the outer bills off and offers them to the wide-eyed bouncer. This time he does not refuse, and lets the two teenagers past the barrier.

As they enter, Delilah giggles happily to herself, pleased with her accomplishment. She grabs her brother's arm and pulls him into the crowded club saying excitedly, "I heard that Finnick Odair is here tonight."

_Of course, _Tomas thinks. That was the reason why Delilah insisted on stopping at the club on their way back from Toby's party. Finnick Odair. Despite the fact that he was old enough to be their father, all the girls at school were totally obsessed with the District 4 Victor. In fact, all females in general seemed to be obsessed with the man- even his own mother who seemed to have convinced her husband to have their son designed to look like him. Designer babies weren't uncommon in the Capitol, but it still made Tomas uncomfortable everytime he looked in the mirror and saw Finnick Odair's bronze hair, tanned skin and sea-green eyes staring back at him. It was as though he himself was a younger Finnick Odair. Not that that was the worst thing- Finnick was very popular with the ladies, and was one of the best tributes ever to win the Hunger Games. Still, Tomas often wondered what he would look like if his genes hadn't been altered, and he had a face to call his own. Would he be blond like his older sister and mother? Or would he have his father's darker hair? What colour would his eyes be? Delilah's were naturally blue, although she was dyeing them a deep lilac at the moment.

As they walk up to the bar to one side of the room, Tomas glances around. To be fair, he is finding it a little bit exciting to be in an adult club after midnight, no matter how much he protested when Delilah suggested it. And quite honestly he would like to see Finnick Odair too. The man whose face Tomas had been given.

Tomas had never actually seen a Victor before. Although they belonged to the Capitol, Tomas' parents weren't overly rich by Capitol standards, and so they never wanted to spend money on tickets to the sorts of parties where the elites mingled with their idols. Not that his parents were poor. Tomas knew he had an awful lot compared to the Districts and was thankful once again to whatever God it was that let him be born in the Capitol.

Suddenly he feels Delilah's long red talons dig into the soft flesh of his arm.

"Look! There he is!" She squeals in his ear, leaning close to be heard over the rowdy crowd and deafening music. Tomas turns his gaze to follow her perfectly manicured fingernail and sees what she's spotted.

There in the centre of the room is Finnick Odair, surrounded (as usual) by a large group of simpering girls. Tomas always assumed he was glad of the attention but tonight he appears to be trying to push past the group, a frazzled expression on his face. Tomas watches as he says something to the women, and they all seem to sag with disappointment and pout miserably. Then Finnick manages to detach his arm from the tight grip of a purpled-skinned woman, and begins to walk away from them right towards where Tomas and Delilah stand. It's a few moments before Tomas realises that Finnick is heading towards the bar which they are standing next to, but still his heart begins to pound faster at the idea of being within a metre or so of _Finnick Odair_.

Delilah too appears rather star-struck, and the two of them stare as the Victor walks right up the bar, just to the left of where the teens are standing, and orders a drink. Finnick waits whilst the barman mixes the liquid and hands the glass to him , then he turns to survey the room. Which is when he spots them.

Perhaps it's just the lighting of the place, but Tomas is sure that Finnick's eyes widen at the sight of his and Delilah. Or maybe just him. It can't be everyday that you see your teenage look-alike. Then suddenly he's standing in front of them. Finnick looks at the boy, and asks tentatively, "Tomas?"

Tomas can only stand mutely and stare as a thousand scenarios rush through his head to explain why Finnick Odair knows his name.

"Yes, he's Tomas," Delilah cuts in, adding quickly, "He's my brother."

Tomas notices the way she pushes out her chest to make her breasts appear more noticeable. Finnick's eyes alight with understanding, and he turns to her saying. "You must be Delilah then."

The smile on her face is sickening as she replies with severe eyelash fluttering, "Either you know us somehow or you're just really good at this game."

Finnick laughs lightly, a melodious sound, before telling the pair that he knows their parents. Then concern colours his features and he asks, "Do they know that you're here?"

"Well..." Delilah stutters, her cheeks flushing. "Not exactly."

"As I thought," Finnick sighs, downing the last of his drink and placing it down on the bar behind them. "Come on. I'm taking you home."

The pair of them are still too much in a state of shock to argue, so they follow Finnick across the club and out to the road beyond. Walking briskly, he stops in front of a sleek black car, and opens a door for them. When they have all clambered inside, Finnick gives his driver, an avox, their parents' address, proving that he really does know them. Then he turns back to the teenagers.

"So what were you doing in a club?"

His tone isn't really angry- more amused and curious. So Tomas explains their night so far.

"Right," Finnick grins. "So you're not regulars or anything? There are a load of wierdos that hangout at that sort of place in the early hours of the morning. I'd stay clear of it."

"Then what were you doing there?" Delilah asks, starting to sound a little huffy. Tomas wonders if she's considering taking down the Finnick Odair poster in her room. Nevertheless Finnick just laughs again, and replies nonchalantly, "That's a very good question." But the smile doesn't reach his eyes and Tomas gets the feeling that Finnick is hiding something.

It isn't very far from the club to their home, so the rest of the journey is taken up by Finnick inquiring about Tomas' and Delilah's parents and their own lives. When Finnick discovers that Tomas is a swimmer he smiles broadly with something that could almost be called 'pride' shining in his eyes. However the journey is short and it's not long before they reach the house.

Delilah gets out of the car first, leaving Tomas with Finnick briefly who is not getting out. As Tomas makes to get up, Finnick places a hand on his shoulder drawing his attention. Finnick pulls a slim object out of his pocket, saying "Can I get a photo with my clone?" Feeling pleased, Tomas leans in close to Finnick as he takes a selfie of the two of them and before inspecting it closely. Then he turns back to Tomas and passes him a card with a number written on it.

"Call me if you need anything kid, alright?" Finnick's sea-green eyes, so familiar, stare intensely into Tomas' own, before suddenly Tomas finds himself being pulled into a tight hug. Then, just as abruptly, Finnick pulls away saying with a weak smile, "And try to not to end up in anymore clubs. At least not until you're of age!"

Walking up to his front door, Tomas turns to look back at the car he has just left, but the dark tinted windows mean he is unable to see the Victor. As it drives off, the only reassurance he has of what has just happened is the phone number still clutched in his sweaty palm.


	2. Chapter 1

**One year later**

Hurriedly he took a sharp swerve off the road, and through the gap between two buildings, panting. Straining his eyes, Tomas could still hear the pounding of following footfalls and held his breath, shrinking into the wall of the alleyway. After about a minute the sound of the pursuers grew less and less, until it died away and he closed his eyes in relief. Tomas waited another minute to catch his breath, before quickly moving on, in case the men decided to turn back and look for him.

It had all been so sudden, so dramatically unexpected, that Tomas was beginning to feel like he had fallen into a bad action movie. Only not as the handsome, athletic protagonist who always managed to outsmart the bad guys, but as the irrelevant character at the beginning whose brutal murder sparks a trail of events for the rest of the film. Murder. He wondered if that's what they wanted with him. He wouldn't know why they would, but then again he didn't exactly hang around to find out.

They had all been dressed in crisp teal suits (the colour of the season in the Capitol), with tinted sunglasses and pointed, laced shoes. He recognised them at once as government officials- perhaps it was their carefully groomed facial hair. Or maybe they just shared the same grim expression- as though they had all been witnesses of the same bad accident? However he knew didn't matter though. It was why they wanted him. Waiting outside the gates of his central Capitol school, they had tried to corner him as he came out, asking for 'a minute of his time' and to 'step into the car. It would only be a few minutes. A few questions'. But the grim set of their mouths and the twitching of their restrained fingers told a different story, and so he had turned his back and fled. And now he was here. Where was here?

It was a side to the Capitol he had never seen before. Perhaps he was in the southern part of the city where the usual extravagance and wealth was rumoured to have disappeared due to negligence and expansion in other areas. It was an area that had been favourable maybe 10, 15 years ago? But now the buildings sat dark and empty, the glitz gone and the streets empty.

Almost empty.

There was someone coming towards him- a woman with short cropped hair dressed in dark clothes, a confident stride in her step. She was on the other side of the road when Tomas recognised her. There was no mistaking her fiery gaze and jagged locks. District 7's very own Johanna Mason- axe wielder extraordinaire.

She stopped in front of him, her dark eyes scanning his face carefully. Tomas remembered she was good friends with Finnick Odair, they were often seen out together getting drunk, and supposed she must find his appearance a little shocking. Then she spoke.

"I thought it was you. Tomas, yes?" Her voice was gentler than he was imagining it would be, but he still found himself muted by her presence. So he simply nodded.

"They found you? Snow's men?" she questioned.

Curiosity was aroused in his chest, and Tomas found his voice. "Snow sent them?"

"You were chased here?" Johanna Mason didn't answer his question, but even so it was a confirmation. He nodded again.

"You don't say much do you? I thought you might be more like your father." Ah, there was the Johanna from the television and news articles. Blunt and unapologetic.

"You know my father?" he asked, surprised. Johanna looked at him strangely.

"Of course I do. Where've you been?" Tomas didn't know what to say to that, but a strange feeling was starting to creep into his chest. Uncertainty. Perhaps he didn't know his father as well as he thought he did- why had he never mentioned that he knew Johanna Mason? And Finnick Odair. He'd known Finnick Odair too.

"Come on, I'll call him to come and get you. You can wait at my place." Johanna continued and turned on her heel, gesturing for Tomas to follow. Looking around at the deserted and unfamiliar streets, he decided perhaps the best move would be to just follow.

_It's not like she's a mass murderer or anything,_ was his last thought as he jogged after her, replaying the way she had beheaded her own District partner in her Hunger Games. He wondered what he had got himself into.

Johanna Mason's apartment turned out to be exactly what he was expecting from the infamous victor. It was very plain, very dark and very impersonal. Tomas suspected she didn't like people noseying in on her business and kept herself to herself. However, as she led him along into her sitting room he noticed photographs on the wall, in one of the dark corners so that they weren't immediately obvious.

"Beer?" Johanna asked, heading into the adjoining kitchen.

"I'm only fourteen," Tomas admitted.

"Shame."

Tomas found himself creeping closer to the photos as Johanna busied herself in the kitchen, and found himself smiling. Johanna was pictured everywhere with different victors around the Capitol. Most commonly it was Finnick, and the two of them were striking ridiculous poses in a lot of them. Nonetheless, there were a fair few pictures of Johanna and Katniss Everdeen together- Tomas hadn't realised they were close- and a couple also with another of District 12's victors, Haymitch Abernathy. And then, right at the edge, in the shadow of a large portrait of Finnick and Johanna making a very provocative pose, there was a picture of Johanna Mason when she was a child surrounded by who could be her family. A mother, a father and a younger sister. The two girls shared the same shade of brown hair, but where Johanna's was short and spiky, the younger girl's was soft and curly giving her an innocent expression. In the background Tomas saw a multitude of trees meaning that it had been taken back in District 7. It must have been taken before Johanna won the Hunger Games as the girl looked no older than 10, and indeed she did seem a lot softer and her eyes a lot warmer.

"That's my sister, Lou." Said a voice at Tomas's side, making him jump as he realised Johanna had been watching him. "She died when I was 16."

"I'm sorry," Tomas said simply, but he meant it, seeing the sad look in Johanna Mason's eyes. It made her look less intimidating and less indestructible. More human. Then he added, "She looked like you. Much more than my sister looks like me."

Johanna scoffed.

"Well that's expected isn't it?" she said.

Tomas must have just stared at her blankly because she felt the need to clarify.

"Well, you know. We were actually related."

"What do you mean?" Tomas asked, a seed of doubt forming in his mind. "I'm related to my sister."

"Oh!" Johanna sucked in a breath with an intense expression on her face. Shock? Fear? He couldn't tell. "You don't know."

"Know what?" Tomas was starting to feel irritated now, starting to wonder if Johanna was trying to intentionally wind him up. He wouldn't put it past her.

"Nothing. Nothing, honestly. I shouldn't have said anything." Johanna was definitely looking anxious now, wringing her hands slowly in front of her, scanning his face carefully.

"No, you know something. What is it?" he persisted, stubbornly.

"Nothing," Johanna growled threateningly, and suddenly Tomas saw the Victor side of her. The girl who had gone around brutally murdering her competitors, and he took a step back. "And don't ask me again."

Johanna ended up taking him home about half an hour later. When she showed him her shiny black motorbike he let out a low whistle and his heart began to race in his chest at the prospect of riding it. He took his seat behind Johanna and gingerly held onto his waist as she instructed. Unfortunately the journey wasn't quite as exciting as he had hoped. He couldn't hear anything but air rushing past his ears, and couldn't see much except the back of Johanna's head, but he knew he would still be boasting about this little venture to his friends the next day.

When Johanna pulled the bike up onto the curb outside his house she turned to look at him critically.

"Finnick told me that he gave you his number when he met you. Whenever that was. Do you still have it?" she asked seriously.

Tomas nodded, thinking of the way he had folded it carefully inside the pages of his favourite book on his bookshelf to keep it safe.

"Good." Johanna murmured. Then she grabbed his arm and jerked it towards her, pulling out a thick black marker. In fat, spiky letters, she wrote another phone number on the bare skin of his arm, which Tomas could only assume was her own.

"If those men come back, call one us. Either me or Finnick and we'll come and deal with it. Whatever you do, don't let them get you." Her voice was low, urgent. Tomas began to feel fear building up in his chest as he remembered their grave faces and heavy lidded eyes.

"What do they want with me?" He asked her quietly.

But Johanna didn't answer, instead giving him a shove off of her bike in the direction of his front door.

She revved the engine until the bike was purring again, then looking right him, added, "Stay safe."

As Tomas watched the bike disappear around the corner of his street, he reminisced upon the last time someone else had brought him home. However, this time he was left with a lot more questions. How did his parents know both Johanna Mason and Finnick Odair? Why had they never said anything? Why was President Snow sending men to find him? And what had Johanna meant when she said him and his sister weren't related? What weren't they telling him?

He was determined to find out.


End file.
